How my start-up business benefited from technology

A couple of years back when I started my business as a Construction material retailer and landscaper, I always acknowledged the necessity of having a computer, an email address, and a web site, but still looked at the upfront cost to be too high for a start-up small business like mine.

Several months into existence, my desired profits were not anywhere close to my bank account. I had met and discussed with a handful of business consultants, who fed me with varying concepts and procedures which averagely boiled down to the fact that, I had an excellent opportunity being the vision bearer bringing a brand new product into the market place.

Due to personal dissatisfaction, I sort out to discover more secrets and insights that could leverage my business. I began browsing the internet and spent several hours daily, conducting research and reading articles on start-ups and success stories. 

I realized that 95% of all the success stories I came across had a common element embedded into their business models, the element of technology. Technology was at the very core of all their business models, used as a digital ingredient for speed, accountability and security. I began to realize how negligent my attitude towards technology had not only slowed down my business, but had also started yielding negative consequences, as my competitors were forging ahead of me.

Having realized my mistakes, I immediately began spending on technology. I invested on websites, social media and online marketing campaigns just to name a few. One year passed and believe me when I say the results were amazing. It’s been two years since I started my business and based on my own personal evaluation, I came to the conclusion that Technology spending on my business would be both a cost of carrying out business, and an opportunity to enhance my business. Technology helped me:

• Reach out to more potential customers and establish better business relationships with them

• Streamline operations and management, minimize costs, optimize efficiency, maximize profit, minimize waste, and devote talent to core business instead of overhead

• Deliver better service to customers 

• Support enhanced relationships with key partners 

• Allow customers to better guide the business with more effective communication links.

As time passed, I was able to better understand technology spending on my business. I noticed that there was a fine line between spending too much and spending too little. Like many start-ups, spending too much would have simply consumed my time and budget, leaving my business financially handicapped, progressively stagnant and potentially bankrupt. Spending too little on the other hand could have given my competitors a market advantage and overhead that would be too difficult to match up to.

By: Sergio Buckingham